Something of a milestone was reached in the history of the Danone Irish Close tennis championships in heat wave conditions at Donnybrook last evening when Gina Niland, a winner of the event more times than any other player was beaten at the semi-final stage by UCD science student Anne Marie Hogan.

Niland, who won the first set in predictable manner, 6-2, had a valid excuse for not living up to the high standards she had previously set in a national event "It's difficult trying to maintain form when working at the same time," explained the Limerick woman.

After dropping the first set, Hogan set out to adopted a more aggressive approach and her tactics, enriched by a solid backhand and consistent serves paid dividends to take the next two sets for the loss of only six games.